In the Shadows of Bataan: The Untold Story of the Military Nurses Who Stayed

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippines during World War II, a group of American nurses found themselves caught in the fighting on Bataan. Evacuation was still possible, but they chose to stay. In makeshift hospitals carved out of the jungle, they cared for wounded soldiers through heat, bombardment, and disease. Supplies disappeared. Food ran out. Still, they worked—often through the night—using what little they had to keep their patients alive. Our regular contributor Anne Clare tells the story through one of those nurses, whose strength carried her through surrender and years of captivity. Together, they became known as the Angels of Bataan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the Star, the show where
the American people are the star. One of our favorite
topics to talk about on this show is history. The
Angels of Batan were Navy and Army Nurse Corps members
who were stationed in the Philippines during the outbreak of

(00:31):
World War II. These nurses faced some of the most
grueling conditions of the war, some even being captured and
held as POW's by the Japanese. Here's our regular contributor
and Claire with the story of one of them.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Nursing was not a career for a nice, unmarried girl
in the nineteen thirties. After all, it was dirty, physical work,
and it required learning far too much information about the
opposite sex. However, it was also one of the few
opportunities for a young woman who couldn't afford college to

(01:10):
continue her education in the depression era United States. The
sixteen cents an hour a hospital paid wasn't bad either.
Georgia born Francis Nash was one of the many young
women who ignored social stigma and joined the Army Nurse Corps.
Nash was given the relative rank of lieutenant, meaning she

(01:32):
didn't undergo military training and didn't rank a salute or
full pay. She didn't even have an official uniform, just
insignia to wear on the collar of her white civilian
nurses dress. However, she did have the opportunity to volunteer
for service overseas. In nineteen forty, Nash volunteered for a

(01:53):
two year tour in the Philippines. Stirrings of war on
the horizon and concerned her family and friends was now
really a good time to go abroad? Nash responded to
the effect that if a war were coming, the Philippines
would be where nurses were needed. She wasn't the only

(02:14):
one who thought so. The United States preparations for war
were slow and incomplete, but they had already begun increasing
the medical staff of the six Philippine military hospitals, five
Army and one Navy, doubling the complement of nursing staff.
On Monday, December eighth, nineteen forty one, which would be

(02:35):
December seventh, back in the United States on the other
side of the International date Line, Nash and her fellow
nurses awoke to news of the attacks on Pearl Harbor
three hours later, the first Japanese planes struck the Philippines.
Within two weeks, Japanese forces landed, General MacArthur removed to Corgador,

(02:56):
and the evacuation of US and Filipino forces to the
Batan Peninsula began. On Christmas Eve, Lieutenant Nash's evacuation preparations
were interrupted. Her commanding officer, Colonel J. W. Duckworth, called
her in. He told her that she would be expected
to remain behind in Manila until all of the staff

(03:18):
and supplies were evacuated from the hospital. She was also
told to prepare herself to be taken prisoner. She spent
her Christmas Day working in surgery and burning documents. That night,
she was evacuated by boat, the waters lit by blazing
buildings on the land and ships in the harbor. Eventually,

(03:41):
after some time spent in foxholes and fleeing through the jungle,
Nash arrived to serve in Hospital Number one on the
Batan Peninsula, the most forward of the hospitals. She and
the other medical staff worked through the long, disheartening struggle
to hold Batan, struggling to save lives. Not all of

(04:01):
her patients were American or Filipino. At times medics would
bring wounded Japanese into the surgery. Many of them wore
items they'd taken from American troops as spoils of war.
The Japanese had not signed the Geneva Convention, which declared
medical facilities off limits as military targets, and Nash's hospital

(04:24):
suffered for it. After an attack on the sixth of April,
of one thousand, six hundred beds, only sixty five were
left standing. Three days later, the remaining defenders of Batan surrendered.
A month later, General Wainwright surrendered Corgador, along with the

(04:44):
thousands of US and Filipino troops who surrendered. More than
sixty nurses, including Nash, were taken as prisoners of war
for years of captivity, and the other nurses would continue
to care for the wounded and for the sick. Nursing

(05:07):
may not have been considered a nice profession in polite society,
but as the monument on Corgodor, which commemorates the service
of Nash and her fellow nurses shows, in the eyes
of some, they were far more than nice. They were angelic.
The inscription reads in honor of the valiant American military

(05:30):
women who gave so much of themselves. In the early
days of World War II, they provided care and comfort
to the gallant defenders of Batan and Corgodor. They lived
on a starvation diet, shared the bombing, strafing, sniping, sickness
and disease while working endless hours of heartbreaking duty. These

(05:51):
nurses always had a smile, a tender touch, and a
kind word for their patients. They truly earned the name
the Angel of Batan and Cargador. Dedicated on this sixth
day of May two.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Thousand and A great job on the production by Monte Montgomery,
and a special thanks to Anne Clair for sharing with
us the story of Francis Nash. She volunteered for service overseas,
a two year tour of duty in the Philippines starting

(06:28):
in nineteen forty There's probably no tougher place to be
in the world in the place she ended up being in.
And by December of nineteen forty one, just hours after
Pearl Harbor was attacked in came the Japanese into Manila
and into the Philippines, and from there became a pow.

(06:50):
And this is the work and the duty and the
service that so many of our women showed during World
War two, and we showcased those stories Francis Nash's story
The Angels of Batan. Here on Our American Stories. Liehabibe

(07:31):
here the host of Our American Stories. Every day on
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